Wealth Gap

Margaret Wente has a point. If you take a long enough historical period and use a narrow definition of poverty, the poor are doing better than you think. Things would look even better if we compared today with the 17th century.

Beyond this, poverty is more than material deprivation. It also involves social exclusion and lack of opportunity for participating in society. These have measureable effects on health and social well-being. They reflect growing income inequality, and not simply decreasing material deprivation.